Tutoring for Dummies REWRITTEN
by MidnightWritings
Summary: The prestigious Konoha Boarding School has offered Hinata a free full ride. The only catch is that she has to spend hours tutoring three of their worst students. What could go wrong? KisaHina Slight AkatsukiHina
1. Chapter 1

"Just knock." I scolded myself, my hand shaking as it moved closer to the door. My shoulders ached from my backpack and the two duffle bags slung over opposite shoulders. All my worldly belongings were inside. "She's going to be nice." My roommate-to-be was on the other side of the door. I knew little about her beside name, age, grade, and hometown.

After I had accepted the full scholarship to Konoha Boarding School, the packet had come in the mail a few days later with my room number and the instructions on how to get there. Father was as excited and proud of me as he was willing to express. The full scholarship had a catch; I had to be willing to tutor three students that were called "difficult cases." The scholarship included room and board as well as books, so turning it down would have been ridiculous of me. That doesn't mean I was happy to abandon my high school and all the friends I had there. Father made it very clear that turning this down was not an option.

"Just do it." I muttered to myself. My shoulders burned and I couldn't wait to set my things down and get unpacked. Before I could change my mind and run away to never be found again, I knocked. The lock turned and a very pretty girl with chocolate-brown hair was behind it.

"You must be Hinata!" She beamed at me and pulled me into a hug. "I'm Tenten, it's so nice to meet you!" She pulled the two heavy duffle bags off my shoulders, seeming to take the weight with ease. "Let me help you with those; you look exhausted." She seemed like a whirling dervish of a person. _She's the opposite of me._ I thought, my stomach twisting anxiously. _What if she doesn't like me?_

I followed her into the dorm we would be sharing. The packet had described it a bit but I wasn't expecting it to be nearly this nice. The door opened into a spacious living room with more seating than mine back home had. The two couches looked big and squishy. One was tan and the other was black. The coffee table in the center was cherry oak and looked expensive. Across from it, the squishy carpet turned into hardwood floors. The counter extended from the wall with a huge space behind it. There was a sink across from it with enough counter space.

I followed Tenten down the short hall where there were two doors on the left side and one on the right. She turned, opening the door on the right side. "This is your room." She set my bags on the bare bed. A desk, closet, dresser, and bed comprised the room in a deep mahogany. The room felt spacious yet homey. "The bathroom is right across the hall, and my room is next to it. I'll leave you to get settled." She gave me yet another hug before skipping out of my room, gently closing the door behind her.

My desk was pushed up against a large window. I leaned over it and saw that our room overlooked a courtyard with benches as well as plenty of grassy spaces. I opened the window using the crank knob, closing my eyes when a breeze came through and ruffled my hair. "Maybe this won't be so bad."

Almost as soon as I had finished unpacking, my phone chimed from an email.

_To: Hyuuga, Hinata_

_From: Principal Tsunade_

_Subject: Meeting_

_Hello Hinata, _

_I assume that you are settling in well. At your earliest convenience, please have Tenten show you the way to my office. I would like to discuss your schedule for this semester._

_Thank you, _

_Principal Tsunade_

I stifled a groan. There was nothing more that I wanted than to curl up with the book I was reading. But I was expecting to be busy until I got into the swing of things. My phone was shoved back into my pocket as I walked out into the living room. Tenten was flipping through channels, lazily sprawled out on the couch.

"T-Tenten?" She grinned at me, sitting up.

"All settled in?" I nodded, smiling at her.

"Pr-incipal Tsunade asked to se-see me." I showed her the email on my phone.

"That's convenient, actually." She got up off the couch, grabbing her shoes from where they were tossed next to her. "The food in the dining hall is way better than anything I could ever cook and that's right next to her office."

"I'm here to see Principal Tsunade." I whispered to the office assistance behind the desk. She looked up at me, raising an eyebrow. "Principal Tsunade." I said with a little more determination. I desperately wanted Tenten for support in this strange new environment. She was waiting in the hall, saying that Shizune, the office assistant, didn't like people hovering.

"And you are?"

"Hinata Hyuuga." The name seems to mean something to her. I get a pitying look as she gets up to open the office door behind her.

"You can go on in." She says sitting back down at her desk. The huge, menacing door looms in front of me. I compose myself and try to keep my hand from shaking before I opened the door. The office was carpeted and very official looking. The principal's desk felt miles away, though it must have just been a few yards away from the door. It was longer than the bed back in my dorm. It was also covered in papers. A haggardly looking woman with blonde hair and a rather…generous…chest sat behind it with a pen in hand. The walls were covered in shelves and those shelves were filled with binders. They had last names of people I assumed to be students on them. She wasn't looking up when I got close to her desk so I coughed, making her jump.

"Ah, Hinata." She stood, offering her hand to me. "It's nice to finally meet you. Your records speak wonders but I always prefer meeting the student as well. Please, have a seat." She gestured to the pair of seats across from her desk. I took a seat. My bag leaned against my chair's leg and my hands were anxiously placed in my lap. She huffed out a short breath, blowing the hair in her face back into place. "Thank you so much for accepting our offer." She smiled, but still seemed a bit frazzled.

"It's an honor." I said to my hands. She nodded, shuffling some papers around before finding three vanilla files stacked on top of each other and passing them to me.

"These are the files of the students you will be working with over this semester. I would suggest that you look them over before classes start on Monday. Inside were pictures, samples of grades, previous transcripts, notes from teachers, and even a juvenile detention record in one case. _I see where the warning of "difficult cases" came from._ I thought, already wondering how I could politely tell her there was no way in you-know-where that I could tutor these students. I couldn't get the words out of my mouth so I nodded, smiled, and put the folders in my bag to look at once I got back to my room. She looked satisfied that I hadn't run screaming.

"You will be meeting with Hidan and Kisame on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for an hour each and Deidara on Tuesdays and Thursdays for an hour and a half. Because you will be logging nine hours a week, we would like to pay you for your efforts." She slid a piece of paper across the desk with a contract to work on it. At the bottom of the page is a number big enough to make my eyes go wide. That would be more money than I'd ever had in my bank account at one point before this.

"Principal Tsunade, I cannot accept this!" I was so shocked that I didn't stutter.

"You're completely right." She said and took the paper back, clicking her pen confidently. The principal added a zero to the number then smiled. "I'm sorry that I insulted you, Hinata. You will be paid bi-monthly, is that okay?"


	2. Chapter 2

Water sprayed from Tenten's mouth was splattered all over the coffee table and myself. I gingerly took the contract out of her hands and offered her a napkin. She wiped her mouth, shaking her head at me. "I can't believe you even had to think about taking that job. I know I would have! That's a shit-ton of money!"

"On-one of the students has-s a criminal re-cord." I mumbled picking at the bowl of pasta I had brought back from the dining hall. I thought it would be too overwhelming to eat in the dining hall, so we took our dinners back to our dorm. She was dying to hear how my talk with Principal Tsunade went and why I looked so shaken up. The spit-take was her reaction to me showing her how much I was being paid.

"So do tons of the students here." She stabbed a carrot with conviction and stuck it in her mouth. "Rich daddies mean that the students here can almost literally get away with murder. _Almost_ literally!" My roommate added quickly, seeing my scared expression.

We sat in a comfortable for a few minutes before it started to feel awkward.

"Wh-what do you like t-to do in your sp-spare time?" I asked, feeling rather lame before the words had even left my mouth. She smiled, taking a few moments to chew before answering me.

"I'm here on a fencing scholarship. Monday will start my first year here. Apparently the team is close to winning every year so they've been scouting fencers from surrounding schools. The team practices and travels a lot so you'll have this place to yourself quite a bit." She put her fork down to take her hair down from their usual buns, shaking her head so her hair moves with it. Her hair came just down past her shoulder blades. There were kinks in her hair from where she had it up in the buns. "What about you?"

"I, um, read." The words sounded stupid. She smiled at me, spearing another piece of carrot. I looked back down at my pasta, my appetite lost from the embarrassment. The piece of carrot hit my cheek before falling into my bowl. I looked up to see Tenten smiling at me.

"Reading is nerdy but nerdy is cool now." It made sense when she said it like that. I smiled back at her, somewhat cautiously. "I think you and I are going to be best friends."

…line…line…line…line…

Monday morning came much more quickly than I would have liked. I barely slept Sunday night, my stomach tight with nerves. Tenten assured me that because we had the same schedule, she would be with me the entire day that way we "won't be alone, we'll know each other." She didn't seem nearly as nervous as I was, but she assured me that she was.

When my alarm went off, I felt like I had to peal my eyes open. I stumbled to the bathroom, still waking up, and bumped into Tenten on the way. Her hair was twisted up in a towel. "Good morning, roomie!" She sing-songed. I managed to grunt out something that sounded like "good morning." I keep the door open as I brush my teeth and wash my face. "I mean this in the nicest way possible," She said as she leaned against the door, "but you look terrible."

"I-I know." I said as I patted my face with a dry towel. "I did-didn't sleep well la-last night."

"Makeover!" She said happily, grabbing a few brushes and more makeup than I have ever seen in my life. "You need to look good for your first day!"

It took a few minutes, but when she let me take a good look at myself in the mirror, I was surprised. "I look better than I do when I sleep well." I said, mostly to myself. My roommate beams.

"I would never call myself a makeup expert but I can make a few miracles from time to time." She said, seeming proud of herself. "Now come on or we'll both be late for class!"

…line…line…line…line…

My classes, which I found the school runs on a block schedule of 4/8 classes per day resulting in longer class periods, gave me a pile of homework on the first day, which I found surprising but I was eager to get started on things. My heart sank a little bit when the reminder popped up on my phone saying that I was to meet Hidan in study room 4 of the library for our first session together. _I bet that if I have a lot of homework, he does too._ I thought, bracing myself as I walked towards the library. Hidan's records said that he had been in and out of juvenile detention a few times for various things. Violence was one of them. I gulped hard, wishing once again that I had rejected the offer.

The study room was empty, much to my relief. _Maybe, if I'm lucky, he won't show up. Yeah! But then what…? Oh! What if he doesn't show up for the entire semester? _I sighed. _He can't be that bad if they're letting him go to school here._

"S'up, bitch?" The voice made me jump, my pencil case spilling its content over the table. The language alone was harsh, something I'm not used to hearing. Father didn't believe in harsh language, saying that only those of low intelligence swear to make up for their lack of knowledge.

I looked up see a broad-shouldered teenager with dyed white hair that fell below his chin and purple eyes. His picture in his file said he had brown hair and eyes. The facial features are all the same and the piercings in his left eyebrow and ear match the picture as well. I can't see it, but the subtle clicking noise from his mouth let me know he still had his tongue pierced. His black backpack with various stitched-on band names and rude images swung off his shoulder and onto the table with a thump that made a few of my pens roll off. His eyes bore down on me as he slung himself into the seat across the table from me.

"What, do you want to blow me or something?" He sneered, crossing his arms over his stomach. He tilted his chair onto the back two legs, his legs crossed at the ankle and feet resting on the table.

"I-I'm your ne-new tutor." I said, feebly reaching towards my scattered writing utensils.

"No shit, Sherlock." He snorted, grabbing a bottle of what I hoped was water but had the sinking feeling that it was anything but and squeezed it into his mouth. His cheeks bulged out before he swallowed. I grabbed the pens and pencils within reach, straightening the loose leaf paper I had as a cover for taking a few moments to gain my composure.

"Do yo-you have any homework so-o far?" I said to the table. His planner came skittering across the table and stopped where I could reach it. He had quite a few assignments coming up in the next few days. "Wh-where do you want to st-art?"

"Let's get one thing straight." The front legs of Hidan's chair came down to the floor loudly, making me jump again. "I'm only here because I need to get my grades up to stay quarterback. You," He pointed at me. "are going to make sure that happens." I nodded, relieved that he at least somewhat wanted to be here. He nodded back, putting both elbows on the table and resting his hands on top of each other. His chin rested on his knuckles. "Pre-calc first. I suck at math."

…line…line…line…line…

The hour went by fairly quickly, much to my enjoyment. Although Hidan had a bad attitude at first, he wasn't restful towards me but rather the situation. Pre-calculus was one of my stronger subjects and one of his weakest. His other weak subject was biology, which is mostly memorization and understanding. That's easy enough to test on which means it's easy enough to tutor in. It was almost a relief for my ears when he left; every other word out of his mouth was a curse.

I checked my phone after Hidan left, the first time since the school day began. There were quite a few messages on the lock screen, all of them from friends I hadn't told I was changing schools. My heart ached a little when I looked at the screen and I felt guilty, but I didn't have the courage to tell them. There were quite a few messages from Naruto. One at the beginning of the day, at lunch, after school had ended, and one from a few minutes ago; all of them were variations asking where I was. My head fell to my hands, my elbows propped on the table. A week ago, that much attention from Naruto would have made me blush and faint. Now, it just made me feel like a terrible person for not saying goodbye.

"I'm sorry I'm late I was-" The deep voice catches me by surprise. "Are you alright?" The incredibly tall student ducks through the doorway. He has to be more than 6'5, though his file didn't say. His hair was wet and pushed back out of his eyes. The smell of chlorine seems to follow him into the room like a miasma. His navy blue backpack gets set on the floor next to the table, and even sitting he was taller than I am. His eyes were a deep shade of blue and I could see tattoos on his neck. "Are you alright?" He repeated sounding honestly concerned.

"I'm okay." I squeaked, the color rising in my cheeks. "I'm sorry." His eyes crinkled at the corners.

"No worries. They say if you don't cry at least once during the school year, they won't let move to the next grade level." He chuckled as he got his planner out of his backpack. He reached over the table after he did, easily able to reach across due to his impressive arm length. "I'm Kisame, it's nice to meet you. Thank you for agreeing to do this." His hand completely encompassed mine.

"Y-you too," I said rather lamely, taking my hand back from his and putting it back in my lap. "Wh-ere do you want-t to st-start?"


	3. Chapter 3

"They're nice enough." I said after I had carefully put all of my school things back into place though all I wanted to do was crawl into bed. Tenten was in her room working on homework and had asked how the first two tutoring sessions went. Her chair swiveled from facing her desk to facing where I stood in the door. My hand went over my mouth when a yawn tried to work its way out.

"What do you mean by interesting?" She said around the pen sticking out of her mouth. There were ink stains on her hands and I guessed that she had started on our homework when classes let out. "What are their names? Maybe I know them."

"Kisa-ame and Hi-dan were today, an-and tomorrow I'll be m-meeting with Deidara." The pen fell from her mouth and onto the floor.

"Are you kidding me?!" She yelped, leaping up in excitement. "Are they dreamy?! I've heard they're dreamy!"

"They-They're okay, I guess." I said, taking a step back from her out of my confusion.

"You haven't heard? They're part of the Akatsuki!" She squealed. I covered my mouth over another yawn, not really understanding what all the excitement was about. "The Akatsuki is a group of the hottest guys on campus. Their parents are all incredibly powerful so that explains why the criminal record was swept under the rug." She picked her pen back up off the floor and stuck it back in her mouth. "The only downside is they've got a psycho fan girl following." I cringed, feeling a headache coming on.

"Th-That doesn't sound go-good." My phone chimed with yet another text message. It was from Hanabi, my younger sister. My gut tightened when I realized that I hadn't responded to any of the messages I had gotten earlier. _Tea first, then I'll respond to everyone._

I settled back down at the chair at my desk, letting the tea steep while I responded to everyone. Naruto's was saved for last. I just didn't know what to say. My homework loomed in front of me, so I quickly typed out a message. _I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but it was kind of a last minute decision. I'll see if I can come visit home soon._

My phone rested, facedown, on my desk while I got started on my homework, tea finally steeped and perfect drinking temperature. As soon as I set the drink back on its coaster, my phone started buzzing with a phone call. It was Naruto. I squealed with surprise and threw my phone across the room.

"Are you okay?" Tenten came into my room. "Oh, god, are the death threats starting already?"

"W-What? No, I just got a ca-call from Naruto-kun." I chewed my lip, not liking the thought of receiving death threats for doing a job.

"Oh, your boyfriend? Why would you throw your phone like that if it's your boyfriend?" She grabbed my phone off the floor, checking the screen. "You have a voicemail." I grudgingly took the phone back. "Ex-boyfriend?"

"I lo-lo…like Naruto-kun and he do-doesn't know I ex-exist." I mumbled, swiveling to face my desk to wrap my hands around the steaming mug before swiveling around to face her again.

'That's obviously not true if he just left you a voicemail." She crossed her arms and leaned against my bed frame, looking wryly at me. "Boys are just a little thick in the head." I took a long sip of my tea before setting it down and reaching for my phone.

"Yeah," I said, rolling the phone back and forth in my hands. Tenten smiled at me a little bit.

"He'll come around. He would be an idiot to let a girl like you go." She left before I had a chance to protest. The little voicemail icon seemed to mock me. I chewed my tongue as I unlocked my phone and put it to my ear.

"_Hey Hinata, I guess you're, uh, busy with all your new school friends or something. (Or homework, you idiot!) Oh! Yeah, what she said. But—Hey! Give that back!_

_Hinata, this idiot doesn't know how to leave a voicemail like a _normal_ person so good luck with your homework, text me later! Byeeeee!" _

Naruto and Sakura were always around each other. Some people said that they make a cute couple but Sakura always laughed and said that there is "no way in hell I would date this idiot." Naruto was in lo-he liked her a lot. The thought made me feel sad. Naruto liked Sakura but she liked Sasuke and Sasuke didn't really seem to like anyone, though his fan following were obsessed with the idea of him falling in love with them. Sakura knew I liked Naruto and she said the same thing about him that Tenten did.

I sighed, putting my phone back where it was and instead reached for my tea. My homework wasn't going to do itself, after all.

…line…line…line…line…

"You're Hinata, right?" I looked up from where my textbook lay on the table, to meet eyes with someone I would have thought was a girl if I didn't know that Deidara was male. His hair was longer, almost past his shoulder blades, currently back in a ponytail. It was a pretty blond that complimented his blue eyes. He grinned at me, sitting down. "You're a lot cuter than the last girl they tried, yeah. She was a butter face." He chuckled a little bit at his own joke, pulling his planner and passing it to me.

It was mess to say the least. There were assignments in the margins and doodles all over the pages but I could make out a few words. He had the messiest handwriting I'd ever seen.

"Wh-what do you want t-t-to start w-with?" I gently pushed the planner back towards him. He shook his head.

"I can't jump in like that after a long day of school." He grabbed a pencil and a blank sheet of paper out of his backpack. "We have an hour and a half of tutoring. We can chat for a few minutes, un." He scrutinized me for a moment before starting to sketch loosely on the paper.

"O-okay," I said, closing my book and putting it back in my backpack so I could focus on him. I wrung my hands, not certain where to start. "What's yo-your favorite sub-subject?"

"Art, yeah." He looked up at me, smiling a little bit in a way that made my stomach feel funny. "My teachers hate me because I draw so much on my tests and assignments." He made a face and I giggled. Conversation with him was really easy. I could see why so many girls claimed to be in love with him. He was great at making you feel like you were the only person in the entire world. I kept trying to take peeks at what he was drawing but he would slyly move the paper just out of my view.

"W-we should get st-started." I said, noticing that fifteen minutes had already passed. I really didn't want to get fired on my second day.

"Yeah, I'm finished anyways." He said and used the tips of his hand to spin the paper to where I could see. My breath caught in my throat. He'd sketched a picture of me. In the picture, I had my legs tucked under me and my head was tilted back. He'd made my neck look so long and elegant. There were butterflies in the picture, and one was resting on the hand I had on my collarbone. The other hand was behind me, my weight on it. "Do you like it?" His eyes searched my face.

"It's beautiful!" I said breathlessly. He grinned, sliding it the rest of the way towards me.

"You didn't stutter that time." He mused, looking pleased with himself. "I'll give you a color copy for your birthday, un."


	4. Chapter 4

Tenten wanted to meet for dinner after I finished tutoring, so I took my homework to one of the dining halls to work. It was quiet enough that late in the afternoon and it didn't seem worth the trek to our room just to turn around and come back. I took a seat near one of the huge windows, admiring the view. It reminded me a bit of Hogwarts. There were huge windows on one side, and the other side had the stations where you could get your food. The seating area was carpeted while any other area had pretty, expensive-looking white tile with the occasional accent, which was a metallic cut out of the school's crest set in stone and filled in with pretty glass pieces. The windows were floor-to-ceiling and cranked open so that a breeze could flow through on nice days like today.

A slight breeze blew through, scattering my papers across the table. "Shoot, shoot, shoot!" I scrambled to grab them before they got too far away. A few seemed to grow legs and get away. I almost knocked my chair over trying to get up to run after them. They landed under someone's shoe and I cringed, not wanting them to get wrinkled.

"Lose something?" I made eye contact with Kisame, feeling my face start to go red. His hair was wet from swim practice and he had a towel around his shoulders.

"S-Sorry," I mumbled, feeling a bit ridiculous. He chuckled, handing me the papers.

"No need to be sorry. Where are you sitting? I'll join you." I blinked before pointing to my table with the hand I had my papers in. His huge stride made it so that he easily got to the table before I did. He took a seat across from my original one, pulling a water bottle out of his backpack. The breeze came back, but this time I was prepared to grab my papers before they get away. He chuckled again, a sound that made my face flush. He rubbed one corner of the towel over his hair, looking a bit sheepish. "Sorry about all…this." He gestured to his wet hair and the wet spots on his shirt. I tried not to let my gaze linger on his chest, where it clung very attractively. I could feel the blush creeping up my cheeks and down the rest of my face.

"It-it's okay," I said to the table, playing with my pencil and averting my gaze. Trying to get the attention off of me, I asked him how practice was.

"Coach is going to burst an artery if he keeps yelling at us like he does. I've got at least six inches on him so he makes us all sit down before he yells at us." He took a long swing from his water bottle, wiping the stray drips from his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Why do-does he ye-yell at you?" I couldn't imagine any reason to yell at someone as nice as Kisame.

"He says we're all going to get booted off the team if we don't get our GPAs up." He rolled his eyes. "It's the beginning of the fu—freaking year. There's not much we can do right now."

"KISA-KUN!" The squeal caught us both by surprise. A girl came sprinting across the dining hall. Her brown hair was in pageboy hair cut with blue streaks that I suspected were fake because they were longer than her naturally-colored hair. She had blue contacts that were just slightly off center of her iris, showing hazel eyes that I actually thought were very pretty. She also had blue braces and a slight lateral lisp. She flung her arms around him from behind, nuzzling his neck. _That must be his girlfriend._ I felt embarrassed that I had let my eyes linger.

"Hi, Yami." Kisame said, though his teeth were clenched tight.

"Kisa-kun, I missed you SO much this summer!" She cooed into his ear. He gingerly took unwound her arms from around his neck. "Did you miss me?"

"Sure." He said, shooting me an uncomfortable look. _Oh._ I thought, the realization hitting me. _That must be one of the fans Tenten was telling me about._ She seemed to notice me for the first time. She looked like she smelled something bad.

"Kisa-kun, who is this?" She glared at me. Her glare made me feel awful. I shrank into my seat. I didn't want to cause any drama; I just wanted to get my homework done.

"This is my friend, Hinata." He said, reaching across the table to pat my hand comfortingly. Yami almost literally hissed like a snake.

"_Friend_?!" She spat the word like acid. "Kisa-kun, you've never referred to me as your friend. You don't have any girls that are friends."

"I sure do." He said faux-pleasantly, his hand clenching mine a little uncomfortably. "Konan is a girl and she's my friend. Hinata is a girl and she's my friend, too, right Hinata?" He smiled apologetically. I nodded at my papers. "Now, if you wouldn't mind, we were having a conversation." Yami's entire posture went stiff. She clenched her teeth, her hands balling into fists. Her head tilted and she smiled at us creepily.

"Right. Kisame. Kun. I'm. Sorry. To. Have. Disturbed. You. Two." Each word came out harshly and made me shrink further down into my seat. Kisame was still holding my hand when she left, shooting daggers at me over her shoulder.

"I'm really sorry about her." He let go of my hand and I was surprised that I missed the warmth when it was gone. "She's one of the girls that likes me a lot. It seems like every guy in my friend group has a following as crazy as her."

"T-Tenten, my room-roommate said she had he-heard about that." I fidgeted with my pencil, focusing on that instead of his gaze. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him grimace.

Someone pulled the chair out next to me and sat down, surprising me. "Kisame!" Deidara said grandly. "What are you doing with Hinata?" He slung his arm over the back of my chair.

"We were just hanging out." He took another swig of water, eyes widening in surprise when more people sat down. The only other person I recognized was Hidan.

"Hinata saved us a table!" Deidara gave my shoulder a squeeze and I felt like I could melt into the floor out of embarrassment. The group of people was huge and took up the entire table.

"Glad you're useful for something." Hidan snarked when he saw me staring at him.

"You're one to talk." Deidara said and squeezed my shoulder again. I felt like the entire dining hall was looking at us. I sucked in a deep breath and looked around, my heart sinking into my toes when I saw that a lot of people were looking at us. At least, most of the girls in the dining hall were. It was a combination of glares and longing glances. My phone started ringing. I excused myself from the table to answer it, relieved when I saw that it was Tenten.

"What are you doing sitting with the Akatsuki?!" I scanned the room and saw her sitting close to the window. She waved. I didn't want to be rude and leave the table suddenly so I stayed put.

"I-I was wa-waiting on you and doing ho-homework and Kis-Kisame sat with me and the-then they were a-all there." I glanced back at the table. "Y-You should come sit with us."

"What? No way, I couldn't." She said but she was moving towards me with a big smile on her face. I giggled, hanging up my phone. I took a seat back down at the table and Tenten sat down next to me. The entire table seemed to be caught up in conversation.

"You're an idiot, un." Deidara said animatedly. "Art is fleeting! That's what makes it so beautiful, yeah!" Farther down the table, a slight redhead shook his head, making a sound of disgust.

"Art is eternal, and that's what makes it so beautiful." His voice was soft but I got the idea that when he spoke, people listened. Deidara crossed his arms and blew his hair out of his face with a puff of air.

"Let's ask the girls." He seemed to notice us and grinned. "What do you think? Is art eternal or fleeting?"

"Eternal, of course." Tenten said before I could even think about my answer. "That's why art galleries are so popular. If art is fleeting, you don't get to fully appreciate the beauty of it and see the little details. You can still enjoy fleeting art but I wouldn't call that art at all. The main appeal of art is getting to enjoy it for years to come." Everyone shut up, even Deidara who looked like he was going to retort after she was done but slowly shrank into his chair as she talked. The topic changed, and I pretended not to notice when the redhead came to sit next to our end, more specifically Tenten.


End file.
